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James Freeman Clarke

Trustee of the Library, 1879-1888. Born 1810 in Hanover, NH, and
died 1888 in Jamaica Plain/Boston. Clergyman, social reformer, scholar
and author. James Freeman Clarke’s family lived for a time
in the home of his grandfather, the Rev. James Freeman of Boston’s
King’s Chapel, who tutored him daily and allow him the use
of his considerable library. He went on to receive his formal education
at Boston Latin School and at Harvard University. The rote style
of education at the time in these schools kindled his lifelong work
for educational reform. Inspired by his grandfather and by Samuel
Taylor Coleridge, Mr. Clarke entered Harvard Divinity School, graduating
and ordained a Unitarian minister in 1833. His preaching experiences
in Louisville, KY—then a rural river town—led him to
study other faiths and to develop his ability to communicate with
peoples of differing religious thoughts. With his friend the Reverend
Ephraim Peabody, Rev. Clarke founded the Unitarian magazine, The
Western Messenger, of which he later became the sole editor.
On returning to the Boston area in 1841, he set about gathering
a church that would become the Church of the Disciples, a Unitarian
congregation drawn from all parts of the city rather than from one
specific geographic area as was common in New England. Rev. Clarke
wrote articles and poems for his church’s weekly newsletter, The Christian World; gathered and published its orders of
services and hymns; and participated in many social movements for
temperance, woman’s suffrage, prison and educational reforms
and against slavery. By 1849 he was exhausted from overwork and
grieving the death of his firstborn son. During his time away from
Boston, he studied non-Christian or “ethnic” religions
and lectured on them. After returning to pastorate life and his
social and reform activities, Rev. Clarke purchased Brook Farm in
an attempt to bring back communal life but later offered its use
to the Union Army as a training ground. During the Civil War he
visited and preached at the army camps as well as raised funds for
supporting the wounded; the church sent teachers and supplies to
help freed slaves. After the war, Dr. Clarke was appointed to the
Harvard Divinity faculty and influenced the School to offer courses
on non-Christian religions and to emphasize requirements on modern,
rather than ancient, languages and literature. Drawing on his studies
and researches, he gave lectures on comparative religions at the
Lowell Institute which were later published in three volumes. Although
active and in good health, Rev. Clarke experienced increasing fatigue
starting in early 1887; he preached for the last time in the spring
of 1888 and soon died peacefully, surrounded by family. In honor
of his religious and social influences and efforts in Boston and
New England, donations were made to the Library in his memory: a
portrait of Rev. Clarke by Edwin T. Billings given by William H.
Reed and others now hangs in the Fine Arts Department reading area,
and the statue of Sir Henry Vane by Frederick MacMonnies given by
Dr. Charles G. Weld and others now stands in the vestibule of the
McKim Building.